Ashington out but not disgraced by FA Cup defeat at King’s Lynn

An emotional chairman Brian Shotton, and Ashington manager Ian Skinner after a heroic 3-1 defeat. Picture by Rachel McDonald.

Ashington bowed out of the Emirates FA Cup at the fourth qualifying round stage after a 3-1 defeat against King’s Lynn on Saturday, writes Brian Bennett.

However, manager Ian Skinner praised his players to the hilt, describing them as having been ‘immense.’

Luke Salmon scored for the Colliers as his side footed finish cancelled out Ben Stephens’s opener for the home side. Jordan Ponticelli restored the lead for the Linnets before Adam Crowther’s close range effort sealed the win.

Skinner said afterwards: “Full credit to the players because they have been immense throughout the whole competition which is a bit ruthless. We’ve enjoyed the spotlight being on us a little bit but the minute you’re out, it dusts you off and throws you away. We were certainly not disgraced and gave a good account of ourselves - and what we have got to do now is take the pats on the back and the plaudits.”

He continued: “I thought in the first half we struggled to get to grips a little bit with the movement of King’s Lynn’s front four which was very, very good. “Second half if I’m honest, I thought we were the better team for 20 minutes but in that period, we didn’t quite threaten their goal enough.

"Albeit we got into some good positions and the ball either didn’t quite drop for us or we snatched at it a little bit but as the game went on, I still thought there was a chance we could pinch something and bring them back to our place on Tuesday night.

"But to concede the third from a set play was disappointing. We had done a little bit of work on their set plays about double headers and when that went in I think it knocked the stuffing out of us a little bit. We’ve then got to change the way we play and be a little bit more direct and try and get the ball forward which doesn’t suit us to be fair and in the end they (King’s Lynn) ran out 3-1 winners.”

He added: “Now we now need to focus on the ambition - which is to try and move up the footballing pyramid and hopefully get to a position which Kings Lynn find themselves in now - which is top of the National League North.

"Throughout the FA Cup competition, we’ve played teams from higher up in the pyramid and we’ve seen that the current squad can hold their own. It’s up to us to be consistent enough to give us the opportunity moving forward.”